The Water Lanes

With few exceptions, the names of streets in early medieval York contained strong Viking influences.

[2][3][7][8][9] The lanes held great appeal for artists, who enjoyed capturing the long, narrow streets and the ramshackle buildings.

[10][11] A detailed layout of the Water Lanes and the floorplans of the individual buildings on them was recorded on a map of York that surveyed the area between 1849 and 1851 just before their demolition.

The police reports from the area made constant reference to the problems of crime in the streets, with offences ranging from murder to mugging, and even a case of a lady who was having her fortune told in a house on Water Lane, who found that her money had been taken from her during the reading.

In February 1830, City Commissioners looked seriously at the "plan of the projected New Street from Low Ousegate, across the Water Lanes, and to the present entrance to the Castle".

The fact that a tenth of those who died in the York cholera epidemic of 1832 lived in the three Water Lanes spurred on the argument in support of demolishing them.

[13] Improvement commissioners in the 1840s discovered that the toilets facilities for the residents were nearly non-existent, noting that "the inhabitants have to use those of their neighbours by stealth or go into the street".

After continued debate, in the 1850s the City Corporation decided that the lanes should be demolished, although work didn't finish for around twenty years.

[2] After the demolition, many former residents were forced to move to other already overcrowded areas of the city such as the Hungate and Walmgate districts where their arrival exacerbated conditions.